E-rostering can improve hospital efficiency, says Carter Review

Published in February, the Carter Review report identified significant and unwarranted variation in costs and practice which, if addressed, could save the NHS £5bn a year by 2020/21.

The report detailed how budget savings could be made through; better use of clinical staff, reducing agency spend and absenteeism and adopting good people management practices; of which, employers and workforce leaders play a crucial role.

One of its recommendations is the extension of e-rostering as a means of ensuring staff are deployed in the most productive way.

We know at Skills for Health that e-rostering is efficient in saving crucial planning time; with our e-rostering software users reporting planning time now taking 75% less time since adopting the system, and reporting reduced locum spend by 10%-20%.

The Carter Review detailed that all trusts should have the key digital information systems fully integrated and utilized by October 2018.

Within the 15 recommendation details in the report, also comes the implementation of the practices of the model hospital within all Trusts, which include adopting dashboards. With the inclusion of metrics, dashboards provide a balanced view of patient, people and financial performance.

Commenting on the report we believe that what Lord Carter sets out is certainly achievable and there are currently many processes already in place to help ensure efficiency in workplaces.